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From Canada, with guts: Memphis in May & Indie Memphis unite for filmfest

John Beifuss, The Commercial Appeal
Published 12:50 p.m. CT April 11, 2016

James Woods and Deborah Harry in a rare non-disturbing moment from 'Videodrome.'

Films ranging from the heartbreaking to the stomach-churning will be screened next month when the Memphis in May International Festival joins forces with Indie Memphis to host a four-movie series devoted to directors from this year's Memphis in May honored country, Canada.

The movies -- two of which will be making their Memphis public-screening debuts -- will be shown at 7 p.m. each Wednesday in May at the Malco Studio on the Square. Tickets are $10 per movie, or $8 for Indie Memphis members. For advance tickets, visit the Indie Memphis website.

Here's the "Cinema of Canada" lineup:

May 4 - "Monsieur Lazhar" (PG-13, 94 min.). Directed by Quebec native Philippe Falardeau, this 2012 nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film chronicles the difficulties faced by an Algerian immigrant (Mohamed Fellag) who is hired to replace a popular teacher who committed suicide in her Montreal public-school classroom. The movie screened only one time previously in Memphis, during the 2014 Rhodes College Tournées French Film Festival.

May 11 - "The Forbidden Room" (Not rated, 130 min.). Making its Memphis debut, the latest unclassifiable and mysterious objet d'auteur from Winnipeg filmmaker Guy Maddin features such oddities as a lumberjack who materializes inside a submarine and a sentient, free-traveling mustache that lives on after the death of the man who grew it.

May 18 - "Stories We Tell" (PG-13, 108 min.). Another Memphis debut, this acclaimed and highly personal 2012 documentary from Toronto actress/filmmaker Sarah Polley uses interviews, documents, Super-8 recreations of "home movies," and other material to take a deep dive into her troubling family history. The movie was named best documentary of its year by the National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle.

May 25 - "Videodrome" (R, 89 min.). Arguably the most internationally successful of Canadian film directors, Toronto-born David Cronenberg began his career with extremely graphic science fiction and "body horror" movies, including this controversial 1983 masterpiece famous for a scene in which James Woods inserts a pulsating videocassette tape into a vertical slit that has formed in his stomach. The supporting cast includes Deborah Harry of Blondie as a kinky psychiatrist.

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